Rock Radio Scrapbook

FROM THE ARCHIVES...

Talent: BOB McADOREY
Station: CFGM Richmond Hill, Ont.
Date: 1976
Time: 3:24

Bob McAdorey always sounded like a chum on the air, so it's fitting that the radio station he's most identified with is CHUM.

McAdorey joined CHUM in 1961 in the 1-4 p.m. shift, after earlier stops at CJCD Dawson Creek, B.C.,   CHVC Niagara Falls, Ont., and CKOC Hamilton. Later he moved into the 4-7 slot.

McAdorey's seven years at CHUM (1961 to 1968) coincided with that station's early heydays as a Top 40 station. It was a wild and unpredictable time of contests, promotions, and fun times on-and-off the radio. McAdorey told the Toronto Star "I could have written five books about what happened at CHUM. There'd be one book if I saved my memos. The most frightening thing was the British invasion. There weren't enough cops to handle the crowds - it was out of control."

After leaving CHUM in 1968, McAdorey moved to middays at country-formatted CFGM. He joined easy-listening CHFI in 1970, leaving that station after the station went to a rock format in 1972. Then it was back to CFGM where he stayed until he joined the fledgling Global TV as an entertainment reporter in the mid-1970s. He was at Global for over 20 years, and his funny, off-beat entertainment reports were a classic.

McAdorey's on-air funnyman personna masked some great personal tragedy - he was predeceased by his wife, and a son and a daughter. But our memory of him will always be that cheery voice on the radio, or the smiling face on the TV. He died February 5, 2005 in St. Catharines, Ont., after a long illness.

Hear Bob McAdorey on CFGM here.

(The Bill Dulmage Collection)

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